In fact, you only need one tool to view any document, regardless of its type, and that is the Internet. Almost everyone has Internet access, thus making it the perfect tool when dealing with incompatibility issues. Viewing documents online is the best way to get around those troublesome extensions that some documents have, and the best part of it is that it’s free.
Why view docs online?
For someone that has encountered this problem before, the answer is very straightforward, but others might just think of these tools as being useless, after all, just about anyone has a copy of MS Office on their computers, right? Well, even if this is true, incompatibilities happen. The biggest one we’ve seen so far is the problem that many tend not to upgrade their document editor, and when extensions change (like what happened when MS Office 2007 and higher changed the file types of the documents and added an “x” at the end), the old software cannot read the new files.
The best ways to view documents online
We said that all you need to view docs online is the Internet, and that is true. There two methods of accomplishing this easily, and we will be talking about each of them today. Here they are:
Use online document viewers
There are a bunch of document converter online, and some of them actually work pretty good, but when the solution is not applicable, for instance when you try to open a .pdf file on a computer that does not have Adobe Reader, the problem becomes much worse. What is the easiest way to open files in such a case? (You’ve probably guessed it, use an online document viewer). These tools have the benefit of being available whenever you need them, and most of them are free to use. Also, they cover pretty much any type of document you might want. Therefore, there are many tools dedicated for different types of documents, but generally, most commonly used extensions, such as MS Office files, pdf or ebook files are compatible with the vast majority of online document viewers. Here are a few:
View Docs Online DocsPal Samuraj Data Group Docs
Upload them to the cloud
Cloud storage is really picking up nowadays, and these are the very best solutions for those that work with documents and over the Internet. These services allow users to upload their files and instantly access them from any device connected to the Internet.
Some cloud storage services have document viewers, so you can access the files without the need to download them, and when we think of such a service, one name pops right up: Google Drive (former Google Docs). This service is incredibly simple and it works with pretty much any type of document you have. So, as you can see, viewing docs online is very simple, and these solutions are very useful when you do not have other tools at hand. Also, for home users who use Chrome and want to see online documents before they download them, there is an extension called Docs Online Viewer that allows the user to preview a document and then send it to Google Drive or download it.
